Nobody

 

Nobody (6/10)
Genre: Action
Director: Ilya Naishuller
Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, RZA
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2021

In my opinion, I'm neither impressed nor disappointed by Nobody and despite all the praises, it's nothing but a family man's John Wick - the comparison is inadvertently obvious. 

Somewhere in a Universal Pictures board meeting - 'Guys we need to produce something like John Wick, but not John Wick. Our guy should be a badass family guy living a simple life, his dad should be a badass living in a retirement home, and even his black adopted brother should be a badass who won't show up until the climax. Our guy should show no mercy while killing the baddies, but he won't hurt criminals who are victims of society, justifying crime to be an alternate solution. Our guy will fight Russian bad guys after a random skirmish on a bus. Add some humor, family drama, cute daughter moments, but cramp everything in one and a half hour'. Derek Kolstad delivers a script with all the above components and voila - Nobody. 

Coming to the film's core ingredient - action, there's no stone left unturned to make the action sequences stylish, violent, and gruesome. There's not too much of the shaky cam, some of the fight scenes are well-edited, but the only grievance is the lack of action - there's substantial yet so less. Talking about the action, once again Ilya Naishuller comes out with flying colors in his first major Hollywood project with a decent budget, big names, and worldwide promotion. On a side note, I still feel Hardcore Henry is better than Nobody. 

The story is about a man living a simple family life but everything changes after a burglary incident at his house ignites a war with the Russian mob. 

I have no complaints with Ilya Naishuller as the director, and it would have been if he had a better script. Bob Odenkirk shines as usual despite a mediocre character graph. Connie Nielsen, Christopher Lloyd, and RZA add to the cast with Aleksey Serebryakov as the archetypical Russian bad guy. It's irrelevant, but Tobey Maguire is one of the film's executive producers. I loved the editing by Evan Schiff and William Yeh, especially the opening montage. 

Overall, Nobody is your perfect Sunday evening movie with beers and buddies.